Security guards coming to nine Honolulu parks

The city announced that starting Thursday, nine city parks will have two security guards patrolling the area.

They will be patrolling 24 hours, seven days a week.

The guards are from the Hawaii Protective Association. They will move from park to park, letting people know if they’re doing something they shouldn’t.

“Our role primarily won’t be in the true enforcement or citation realm, but primarily in education, effective communication and inclusion,” said Brett Arizumi, President of Hawaii Protective Association.

It will be part of a pilot project to keep the parks clean and safe.

“We want to see, does this work?,” said Kirk Caldwell, Honolulu mayor. “We do know that locking parks at night with the security we have is making a difference. Vandalism has dropped. It’s not perfect, but it’s dropped. We’re going to see if this education method will make a difference in some of these urban parks and if it works, we will expand it to other parks too.”

The city says the service costs $44,000 for the first month. They say the bill is being paid for by the parks fund, but the mayor says he wants to incorporate it in the city budget in the future.